Maelstrom of Kiri
by admiralproton
Summary: What if Naruto never grew up in Konoha but as part of the Kiri rebels?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters

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><p>Naruto woke to the sounds of battle somewhere near him. Looking around he found himself in a tent, he had no memory of what happened or how he got here but his battle instincts told him to ignore this for the moment, he couldn't afford to be distracted. He quickly scanned the tent for gear and equipped what seemed to be his. When he got out of the tent, he saw that he was in a clearing with a camp in it. There was an ongoing battle and from what he could see the roughly two dozens attackers had the defenders rather heavy numbers advantage.<p>

Before he could decide what to do, or rather where to help, since he apparently was part of the camp and therefore attacked, he felt a presence approaching him from behind. He spun around and was staring at two spinning Sharingans. Before he could process this, he already was looking down at the body and jumping back. But the glimpse of the face was enough, in the back of his mind he remembered that he saw him in the Bingo Book, Uchiha Itachi. The enemy ninja immediately began attacking him by throwing shuriken which he barely managed to dodge and after drew a sword and began attacking Naruto.

At first Naruto was mostly on autopilot while dodging the shuriken, still he couldn't remember what happened but he began to get a feeling of what he could do combat-wise and so he responded to Itachi by drawing his own sword, hoping that his skill was enough to hold him off. It worked at first but then he realized the dangers of looking into Itachi's eyes earlier. He felt into his own system and sure enough found traces of foreign chakra in it. He reversed his own flow and the genjutsu fell apart. The Uchiha wasn't there anymore and he spun around to find him just in time to receive a hard blow to his forehead.

As Naruto fell backwards the world began to blacken and something strange happened, he was sure that he was losing his consciousness but at the same time it felt like his body began moving on his own. But before he could think about it was unconsciousness.

Itachi was about to turn around to help his comrades when he felt something. He was sure that he knocked the boy out but then he began to move again and seemingly faster than before too. The strange boy was retreating a bit and then began to gather his chakra. To prevent him from completing whatever he was starting Itachi rushed to him, but before he could reach him he felt it. Red chakra began to form around the boy and suddenly he _felt _the chakra, it was oppressive and then it hit him, it was the same as when the Kyubi attacked nearly 16 years ago. The Kyubi, this thought stuck with him and suddenly a slight panic began to fill him, he immediately began to suppress his feelings and focus on the battle, but it was too late. The blond ninja had seemingly finished and a red chakra cloak surrounded him now, much faster than he seemed to be before he charged Itachi and began a taijutsu battle.

While before Itachi would have rated his enemy as low to mid chuunin he now could probably go even with some jounins, but he wasn't ANBU for nothing, while he couldn't use ninjutsu as long as he had to defend against this onslaught, he still had his Sharingan and like before he cast a genjutsu on his opponent. But this time it didn't seem to work, perhaps the chakra cloak was interfering. Then he began to notice his problem, while he could keep up with the blond ninja without problems, the red chakra was eating away at his kunai, he doubted it would be a good idea to fight with his bare fists then and he didn't have many kunai left. He could think of some ways he might subdue his foe but none seemed to be a safe option and so Itachi called for backup.

Addressing a nearby teammate he called "Hinata can you come over here? I could use a hand". The Hyuga in question disengaged from her own combat and joined Itachi, "What can I do?" she asked. "I need some time for my ninjutsu, but be careful, his chakra seems to be very corrosive, don't take unnecessary risks, just keep him busy for a while"

She nodded and activated her Byakugan and switched into her Gentle Fist stance before moved toward him. Naruto reacted to his new enemy and didn't pursue Itachi as he disengaged and began with his Hand Seals. Hinata hat coated her entire hands in chakra to protect them, but they still took damage, she hoped Itachi could finish this fast as she blocked the barrage of attacks from her opponent.

Suddenly the earth around Naruto began to shift and the ground he was standing on sunk as the rest rose into the air and moved toward him, before he could react, he was trapped in the dirt and only his head was sticking out. For a moment the red chakra started to flare again and it looked like the makeshift prison would crumble as some seals on Naruto's head glowed shortly and he lost consciousness.

Itachi applied some knock-out tags on the head of the blond ninja and after that the party made way back to Konoha. Upon arrival he tasked some chuunin with the transport of all their prisoners to the T&I facility, released the rest of the party and went to the Hokage Tower to debrief.

As he entered the office he noticed the absence of any other ninja besides him and the Hokage, who activated a barrier seal after the door closed. "So you brought prisoners and returned early, I take that as a sign of success?" asked Hiruzen. "Yes Hokage-sama, we found an invading party of Kiri-nin and ambushed them. Among the enemy was a ninja who could use the chakra of the Kyubi, of that I'm sure. He was able use the demonic chakra to boost his speed and strength as well as cloak himself in it.

While he was able to escape a minor genjutsu I would rate his skill as mid-chuunin maybe a bit higher with his boost, but he seemed to lose tactical focus while in it. A jounin or a team of chuunin should be able to contain him." answered Itachi.

"Interesting, any other Observations?"

"It seemed that he has seals which limit the amount of demonic chakra he can use, I take that as a sign that he is closely controlled. If this proves true, it would be difficult to change his loyalty."

"Thank you for your report Itachi, you are dismissed", said the Hokage before he deactivated the barrier seals. The ANBU entered the office again and he sent one for Inoichi.

Darkness was the only thing Naruto could sense as he regained consciousness, "OK" he thought "I still cant remember anything before I woke up to the fight, and it seems like I'm imprisoned by Konoha now, let's see what they have in store for me"

Suddenly Light flooded the room and blinded him momentarily, as he regained his sight he could see that he was wearing a white uniform of sorts, "probably their prison clothes" he thought. At the other end of his cell a gray haired man had entered, flanked by two bodyguards. After a moment he recognized the face as the Hokage, Konoha's leader.

"Perhaps you are wondering why I'm personally here to interrogate you, but the answer is simple. I am here to propose you a citizenship in the case that you prove to cooperate fully with us. Since you are nothing more than a missing-nin in the eye of the law and your comrades wont be able to rescue you from here the value of this proposition surely isn't lost on you. So instead of simply executing you I think we both would benefit from cooperation. I will give you one day to think about it, but be sure that betrayal will never be an option, only to ensure a cruel end for yourself, of that I will make sure."

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><p>AN: So this is my first story here, pls don't be too harsh with me ;)

If you are wondering what happened before don't worry I will cover it too, but personally I have seen enough of the Naruto as child training episodes, so I wanted to start at an interesting point, anything before that will be covered in flashbacks. I hope my English is not too bad, it isn't my first language.

Any reviews would be welcome :)


	2. Chapter 2

As the Hokage offered his terms he the only reaction he saw was a blank stare from his prisoner, "Well, we'll see what he says tomorrow", he thought, left the cell and ordered the guards to keep him isolated until he would return. What he couldn't see were the seals on the back of Naruto's head which flashed as he had entered the room.

_Naruto was standing in a command tent a large table with maps and counters on it, on the other side stood a tall Kiri-nin with green eyes and short brown hair, who was clothed in olive pants, shirt and a dark blue body armor for his torso. Naruto himself was wearing dark green ninja clothes without any armor or gloves._

_"Minoro-sama", he spoke "this is suicide, ever since the Land of Waves incident three years ago any contact with Konoha forces ended up hostile and most in their favor. Now you want us to infiltrate the Land of Fire and steal a treasure just 20 miles from Konoha?"_

_"You are right, well normally you would be, but there is new information which will secure the success of this mission: It is slowly becoming knowledge that you are a jinchuriki and crucially most nations begin to suspect that Konoha has lost his. Thus they will concentrate most of their efforts from now on to secure one, or they will face war. And even their bloodlines won't help them to win without allies or the power of a demon. So their priority will be to take you in and not to prevent our mission, which will be carried put by a second stealth team anyway. Combined with the fact that success of this contract will secure our funds to achieve victory in the civil war the decision should be clear."_

_"Of course Minoro-sama, if my sacrifice will help the village I will gladly accept", during the whole conservation his face never showed any sign of th betrayal he felt inside. But he knew that this wouldn't keep him from carrying out his mission, as there was nothing out there for him._

The vision faded as he stepped out of the tent and Naruto was in his cell again, with another short flashback he received the memories of the last few minutes. "Ok seems like I can either hope my so called comrades and village will win their war and then remember to get me back or I change loyalty and join Konoha, neither sounds good. To both I'm seemingly just a token of power who can be exchanged with something more valuable if the chance presents itself. So my best bet would be to focus on myself, should have done that sooner to get away from Kiri I guess..." he thought to himself.

The time in the cell seemed to stand still and he had nothing to mark the passage of time. After what seemed to be hours the urge to call out to somebody became a lot stronger, but he knew the perfect ninja would just wait for what came next and since he decided to join Konoha, well not much of a choice there, he didn't want to risk it by making the impression of an impatient child.

It felt like days had passed and Naruto began to wonder if they had forgotten him, the thirst became nearly unbearable and he thought that maybe he had forfeit the offer by not making contact with his guards, because surely the day that was mentioned had passed now. "Tell the Hokage I accept his offer" he shouted as loud as he could

Outside of the cell Sarutobi turned to Kurenai, "How long?" he asked "Nearly two days Hokage-sama". "Good, release the genjutsu" and he entered the cell.

"So you have decided to take my offer and join Konoha. I'm sure you can understand that have my doubts about your switching loyalties, even given the circumstances and to ease them you will undergo a mind walking with an Yamanaka, any objection?"

Naruto knew that his loyalty was anything but solid, to any side at the moment and already began to fear that this would seal his fate, but at the same time an objection would probably spell certain doom as well.

"Of course I will undergo your standard procedure Hokage-sama", he tried to maybe get out of this, hopefully they wouldn't spy the minds of their own ninja.

A small smirk played around the lips of Hiruzen, this ninja seemed promising, at least as interrogations went,"It is anything but standard, but so are you, I'm sure you understand why I will make an exception here" he answered

Naruto nodded slowly "Hai, Hokage-sama"

Sarutobi mentioned one of his guards forward who began a series of handseals and after that laid the index and middle finger on Naruto's forehead. After a few minutes he ended the technique and nodded to the Hokage. "Good", Hiruzen said "It seems everything is acceptable for the moment. You will shortly be transfered" and left again with his guards.

Outside of the cell Fu reported to the Hokage while they made their way back. "I have failed Hokage-sama, his mind is like a maze and seemingly empty, but crucially it is protected by the Kyubi, the beast roams his mindscape freely and began to hunt me as soon as I entered. The only thing I learned is that he was meant to be sacrificed in the last mission, the rebels anticipated our interest in a jinchuriki and set this up. He was feeling betrayed by that but not enough to act against his orders, but since he is now left to his own devices, I think it possible to gain his loyalty. Further investigations of his mind are risky due to the demon and new insight unlikely."

"Thank you Fu, you can return to Danzo now." And Sarutobi gave orders to his ANBU to prepare a full four team surveillance of Naruto beginning immediately, also his son Asuma should be informed that he would gain a new charge tomorrow.

The next day Naruto was handed a standard Konoha uniform consisting of navy blue sandals, pants, shirt and black fingerless gloves with a metal protector together with an flak vest. After he changed he was escorted to the Hokage Tower, he didn't notice the ANBU teams who were shadowing him as he made his way trough the village. On the way he tried to take in as much of the village as possible and the sheer amount of ninja he saw making their way through the streets and over the rooftops made him question any thought about escaping this place.

When they arrived at the office of the Hokage they were let in immediately. Besides Hiruzen himself, there were three other people in the room, one of them he was able to identify as his son Asuma.

"Welcome," the Hokage greeted him, and gestured to the other people in the room "these are Uchiha Fugaku my Chief Adviser, Hyuga Hiashi and my son Asuma, who is going to be your commander and will integrate you in our forces. Now, to start things, give us an report of the situation of your former rebel group"

"I'm sorry Hokage-sama but it seems like my memories are blocked, the only things I can remember are the briefing for my last mission and everything that happened to me after we were ambushed. Since my capture was a calculated risk I guess it was a precaution, maybe also part of an control mechanism over me."

The Hokage turned to Hiashi, who nodded "He speaks the truth, Hokage-sama"

"Well in that case we will have to work on unblocking these memories of yours, but it can wait. Regarding your story you should know that besides the people in this room only a few know the real story, the official story will be that you were an deep cover agent who had infiltrated the Kiri rebels and were now extracted to be part of the regular forces again. Any further questions that you have will be handled by Asuma, he will also show you your new home."

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><p><strong>AN: So here is the second chapter, I know they are short but I will hopefully be able to put out 1-2 chapters of this size a week or would you prefer longer chapters?**

**And any reviews would be great :)**


	3. Chapter 3

"Ok, so how about a sparring match before I show you your new apartment, so we can find the right team for you?" asked Asuma as they left the Hokage Tower.

"As you wish" Naruto replied and followed his new commander. Internally he was debating how much of his skills to show, he knew he was pretty easily defeated at the ambush, so a poor performance wouldn't be too surprising. And since he received the memory of his last briefing he also got a better grasp at his own abilities, even though he still couldn't remember any other events. He just knew that he could do some things and also how to do them, like he knew how to write despite not remembering how he learned them.

With this knowledge he could analyze his fight with Itachi and knew that while he was weaker than him with a bit of luck he could win, since his swordsmanship, while nothing spectacular by Kiri standards was at least on the level of the Uchiha. Additionally his main strength was genjutsu and while it was unlikely that he could trap an Uchiha in a genjutsu he wouldn't have fallen for his either if he didn't had just lost his memories. He just needed to make sure that his enemies don't get the time to use stronger ninjutsu since this was definitely his weak spot.

So his level should be above average for his age group even without depending on the demon within him, he didn't know how to use this power anyway, and while appearing weaker would be to his advantage when he decided to flee from here it was also a risk while he was here as the Hyuga apparently had the power to detect lies. And any deceptive behavior on his part was sure to elect repercussions.

Before he could arrive with an answer to his internal debate they arrived at their destination and Asuma got into his fighting stance. "Ready?" he asked.

"Well better not to hide anything for the moment" Naruto thought and answered "Yes, but I would need a sword as well"

The jounin unsealed a sword from a sealing scroll and tossed it over, after that he grabbed two kunais and closed in on Naruto, who barely had time to draw the sword before he had to defend himself. After some time the blond was able to push back and attack himself, it seemed like a even fight that was going on, but Naruto knew tat Asuma was holding back to match his level. He was trying to test as much of the blonde's skill set as possible, mostly on his level but at times he wasn't holding back to see how he performed against stronger opponents. He was mixing his taijutsu with thrown kunais to see how he would defend versus ranged enemies. After taijutsu Asuma began to use his arsenal of ninjutsu which Naruto couldn't hope to match, so he reverted to evasion and hiding, as a former Kiri-nin he was naturally proficient in the Hiding in the Mist jutsu even if his tracking skills in it were not comparable to the likes of Zabuza. In it he mixed his own arsenal of genjutsu with a lot of success, he even managed to get the drop on Asuma a few times.

Shortly before sunset they stopped their sparring and Asuma showed Naruto to his apartment, "I'm sure you know that straight up taijutsu and ninjutsu are your weak points at the moment, but the style you have developed to cover this seems pretty solid to me, especially your use of genjutsu is impressive. Tomorrow we will go over your scouting, stealth, tracking and trapping abilities but I am already confident, that with the right teammates your team will be a strong force. The only thing you seem to lack at the moment is a really strong point. While you are proficient in genjutsu and you may rival the best masters of it in time your use of it is primarily supportive at the moment. And while I'm sure that you will able to overcome most opponent at your level or even slightly above you, what you are lacking is a method to use all the chakra you have to overwhelm your enemies. So after your evaluation it will be our focus for the future to find to use all your chakra, understood?"

"I will do my best to rectify that Sarutobi-sama" Naruto answered. As they arrived at their destination he discovered that his apartment was located besides the one of Asuma, which made a lot of sense if he was supposed to keep track of him, nevertheless he was astonished to have his own apartment. The jounin told him that he would pick him up the next morning and left after that. As Naruto was exploring his new home he was surprised to find multiple sets of equipment and clothing already stashed away, Konoha really tried to make him feel welcome, and it was working he had to admit to himself.

After having explored his apartment he took a shower and went to bed, he was feeling a bit tired and wanted to be in top form for the next day, but sleep eluded him. Asuma's assessment of skills still floated in his head. Naruto was still surprised at the openness ot it, he thought they would keep him more in the dark until he had proven his loyalty to Konoha, but they where either confident in their ability to keep him here or believed to be open and supportive was the best and fastest way to get his loyalty. He also agreed with the evaluation of his skills so far and that he was missing something. And it gnawed at him, because it felt like there was something, something to fill this hole in his skill set and even bring it to the next level, the ace in his sleeve, but he couldn't remember what it was. He went over all his skills, but nothing seemed to fit the hole, he went through all sort of skills he could think of and then tried to remember if he knew something of it, but to no avail. At some time while he mentally cataloged his skills sleep finally found him.

The next day Asuma took him to a secluded forest within the village. "This is our training ground 44, to most genins also known as the forest of death, it just contains a very hostile flora and fauna though. The name results from the fact that a lot of deadly competitions were held there in the past, every chuunin and above should have no problems with the wildlife in here, even most genins manage it. As a testing ground for stealth and tracking skills it is nearly perfect, so lets start"

The whole day Naruto had to do all sorts of tests related to stealth and tracking from identifying tracks to counting nearby presences, despite the sensory part where he had no talent at all, he felt he was doing about average which was enough for him, as he wasn't allowed to use genjutsu for the test, which normally helped him immensely in these areas. But at the end of the day Asuma still ranked his skills as high, even his bit of sensory ability seemed to satisfy him. "Perhaps they don't train stealth related skills as much", Naruto thought and Asuma told him of his schedule for the near future. "To better fit in as a Konoha-nin you will need to have the background knowledge of history, ideology and common tactics. For this I have found a teacher for you, who will also try and work with you to find other uses for your genjutsu, her is name is Kurenai Yuhi and you will meet her tomorrow. If no possibilities in the area of genjutsu present themselves we will try other fields, but since it is your specialty we will try genjutsu at first. Besides working with her I will take you to joint training with other talented chuunins who will be about your level, learn to work with them, at one point or another you will work with all of them, even though you are going to have a primary team."

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><p><strong>AN: So here is the the new chapter, it should give an idea about his skill set, the next chapter will probably be focusing on his new team.**

**As always reviews would be great, and if you have any questions I will try and answer them.**


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